The Logic Stage: Grades 7 & 8
As your child approaches the middle school years, you may notice a new independence and a persistent question…“Why?” This point in your child’s development is the perfect opportunity to train her in the art of civil discourse. By learning logic and the art of reason and debate, your child will know how to stand strong in her faith and engage others in a loving way. Classical Christian schools stand apart in teaching middle school students the critical skill of logical thinking and reasoning, giving them the tools they need to answer their own question…“Why?”
Understanding truth through a question -- “Why?”
Your child wants to know the “why” behind what he is learning, and his ability to draw conclusions from a series of facts begins to develop. Most modern schools overlook this opportunity, but Ambrose will teach him formal logic and reasoning skills at this crucial stage.
Of course the most important answer to the “why” question should steer your child to the ultimate Truth in the person of Jesus Christ. We will continually train your student’s heart and mind to love the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. Along with you, we desire to emphasize the love of God and the love of others as the answer to how your child should live out each day.
How should teaching change for older students?
Your 7th – 8th grade student will begin to learn through Socratic teaching, a guided question and answer form that is highly effective in teaching children to think. The teacher typically asks a broad “opinion” question that seems to have no right answer. Then, as the students attempt to answer, the teacher guides them through the use of logic toward thoughtful and defensible conclusions. While this seems straightforward, Socratic teaching is an art. It takes time, which is why most schools do not practice it. We find that children at this stage are ready to use their minds in a way that develops independent thinking, rather than simply repeating information they are given.
What your child will do in the School of Logic
- Join our House system
- Attend school dances
- Discuss the worldviews demonstrated in the books they read
- Identify formal logic and logical fallacies
- Role-play a figure from ancient history
- Speak Latin in class
- Participate in the Living History Museum
- Experience the life of a monk at Monastic Conventiculum (MonCon)
Books your child will read
- The Odyssey (7th)
- Epic of Gilgamesh (7th)
- Early History of Rome (7th)
- Plutarch’s Julius Caesar (7th)
- The Confessions of St. Augustine (8th)
- Beowulf (8th)
- The Magna Carta (8th)
- Sir Gawain & the Green Knight (8th)
- The Song of Roland (8th)
- The Last Battle (8th)
NEXT: The Rhetoric Stage
Grades 9 - 12
